Health care complaint journeys for system comparison

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Management
• Health Services Research
• Regulatory Processes

Background:

• The patient journey technique is established for evaluating healthcare service delivery.
• Adapting this technique for regulatory processes presents unique challenges.
• Comparing distinct systems requires careful methodological consideration.

Purpose of the Study:

• To discuss the adaptation of the patient journey technique for comparing two health care complaint and notification management systems.
• To highlight considerations and challenges in applying this method in an atypical regulatory context.
• To offer suggestions for future studies employing similar comparative approaches.

Main Methods:

• A paired design was utilized, matching examples from each system based on predefined criteria.
• Data collection involved reviewing administrative records pertaining to each case's journey.
• The methodology focused on administrative and communicative events within the systems.

Main Results:

• The patient journey technique provided substantial data on system processes.
• Challenges arose concerning the use of administrative records for journey mapping.
• Differences between the compared systems impacted the paired design's effectiveness.

Conclusions:

• Applying the patient journey approach to regulatory processes (complaint/notification handling) is uncommon.
• Comparing two distinct systems using this method offers valuable insights.
• This study contributes to the methodological development of the patient journey technique for broader applications.